Poland

Project - Wspieranie zdolności wykorzystania IT przez MSP w woj. Warminsko-Mazurskim. 

Supporting the use of IT by MSP’s in the Warminsko-Mazurskie province.)

Rationale

Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodship is a large region in NE Poland. It is an agricultural and tourist area affected by structural unemployment. A weak educational level of the Voivodship population as well as low access to educational services perpetuated the unfavourable structure of unemployment. The Voivodship’s labour market is incapable of absorbing all the graduates and the unemployed graduates do not have the resources to change their place of residence. In this way, there is a visible section of educated but unemployed people in the labour market. It is this group of people – the young and entering the labour market-that is the target of the Partnership’s activities performed under the first of three subprojects. New technologies (the Internet and teleworking) are to facilitate a start in the professional life of young people. Teleworking will enable providing work to employers who do not have to have their office in such employees’ place of residence. The Partnership will develop an Internet Driving Licence program and will make it become an extracurricular subject in secondary schools.

Effective implementation of teleworking as a tool for increasing chances of employment requires influencing employers. The Partnership set up the goal of the second subproject, namely increasing productivity of SMEs by using teleworking. We want to effectively prepare SMEs for implementing teleworking by using, among other things, the Tele-employers and Tele-workers’ Exchange (Giełda Telepracodawców i Telepracowników - GTT).

SMEs in Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodship are not prepared to invest in internet projects. The lack of knowledge on the Internet and internet marketing potential causes that the opportunities created by this medium are left untapped. A significant problem is the lack of any training in the practical use of the internet in business i.e. that would exceed using the electronic mail or rudiments of creating www pages. The partnership under the third subproject will present the internet to SMEs from the point of using it in business, solving specific problems as well as enabling to use the best practices in Poland and other EU countries. Following the training, the SMEs will be able to perform effective activities on the internet and fully using its potential. The entire trainings will be held over the web via an Open Platform of Remote Education (Otwarta Platform Edukacji Zdalnej – OPEZ). We will encourage the use of e-learning throughout the project by organizing conferences, coaching sessions and by various direct marketing initiatives.

Objective

The Partnership’s three strategic goals performed under subprojects are as follows:

• increasing the number of employed young through preparing to provide teleworking and acquiring specialist knowledge in the area of the internet, confirmed by the Internet Driving Licence,
• preparing SMEs to invest in internet projects,
• increasing productivity of SMEs by using teleworking.

The Partnership's official name is „Supporting the possibility of using information technologies in Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodship” and it targeted at this particular region in Poland. We will focus on the problem of teleworking and preparing SMEs to invest in Internet project. It is a universal problem which concerns any sectors and fields. However, the Partnership’s activities are targeted at SMEs as well as youth below 23 as a group that enters the labour market. SMEs do not use teleworking and internet opportunities in an effective way. This makes those companies less effective and less competitive. Contrarily to large companies, they are not prepared to invest in internet projects. There are also no trainings available in the market that correctly address these problems. By preparing for teleworking, the youth of the voivodship will increase their chances of employment at their place of residence also by employers from outside the Voivodship. The youth are open to new Technologies and are more fluent in using them. Training the youth will be completed by granting an Internet Driving Licence (Internetowe Prawo Jazdy – IPJ). This certificate will testify that its holder possesses technical knowledge related to the internet and in time it will become a supra-regional document required and valued by employers. We shall procure educational partners for the IPJ Project – secondary schools and universities trying to make IPJ training a permanent feature on their curricula. In this way we will implement the principles of empowerment and mainstreaming.

Innovation

Nature of the experimental activities to be implemented	Rating
Guidance, counselling	***
Training	****
Training on work place	**
Employment aids (+ for self-employment)	***
Employment creation and support	**
Training of teachers, trainers and staff	**
Improvement of employment services, Recruitment structures	*
Conception for training programs, certification	****
Anticipation of technical changes	****
Work organisation, improvement of access to work places	****
Guidance and social services	**
Awareness raising, information, publicity	**
Studies and analysis of discrimination features	**

 

Type of innovation	Rating
Process-oriented	****
Goal-oriented	****
Context oriented	**